SPLASHDOWN! SpaceX's history-making Dragon craft back on Earth

The mission that proved a private company could supply the International Space Station ended Thursday morning when SpaceX's Dragon space capsule splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.

The 8:42 a.m. ocean landing about 500 miles west of Baja California was two minutes ahead of schedule, capping a near-perfect launch, space station rendezvous and fiery decent through the Earth's atmosphere.

"It really shows that commercial space flight can be successful. This mission worked for the first time right out of the gate," SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk said at a briefing from the company's mission control center in Hawthorne after splashdown.

Musk, who founded SpaceX a mere 10 years ago with his own money, added: "In sort of baseball terminology, this would be a grand slam."

NASA plans to shift responsibility for supplying the space station to private sector companies like SpaceX, which is officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

The space agency also hopes that such companies will transport astronauts to the space station after last summer's retirement of the space shuttle program.

The strategic shift, a major part of President Barack Obama's transformation of the space agency, is expected to save money and allow NASA to focus on more difficult missions such as exploring Mars.

"We've been waiting for this day and it is certainly a tremendous day," NASA Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer said while sitting next to Musk at the briefing. "So we're looking forward to regular cargo missions from you guys."

NASA must still evaluate Dragon's flight data and inspect the cargo it carried back from the space station. But Lindenmoyer said he saw no major problems with the mission.

"I would say at this point it looks like 100 percent success," he said.

On May 22, SpaceX launched the space capsule on the company's Falcon 9 rocket. Three days later, Dragon became the first commercial vehicle to berth with the space station. Previously, only the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency had achieved that feat.

SpaceX is one of several companies vying to supply the space station. To help cultivate a space transport capability in the private sector, NASA has awarded lucrative contracts and made its facilities, personnel and vast knowledge available for various companies.

NASA expects these companies to sell their space transport services to other customers as well to make this emerging industry self-sustaining.

"It is a new way of doing business and the fact that we were so successful ... absolutely is an affirmation that it is a model that works," Lindenmoyer said.

SpaceX now looks to new milestones, including a second supply mission to the space station this summer and upgrades for the space capsule to accommodate astronauts.

SpaceX is competing for a NASA contract to send astronauts to the space station. That would require development of various astronaut safety measures, including an escape system in case of emergency.

Musk has said a first manned flight for Dragon could come within three years. That version of Dragon would be able to land on the ground with the accuracy of a helicopter.

In fact, the space capsule that returned to Earth on Thursday already could have safely returned an astronaut from the space station, Musk said.

"It is kind of cool to think that had somebody stowed away on Dragon, they actually would have been OK," he said.

SpaceX also hopes to achieve the first launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket next year. That rocket would be twice as powerful as the next largest rocket in the world.

The success of SpaceX's space station mission is magnified by the short time frame in which it was accomplished.

Musk made his fortune as a software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded online payment service PayPal.

He started SpaceX a decade ago with no formal rocket training. He hired the industry's top engineers and learned enough technically to eventually become the company's chief designer.

Musk originally had said that if SpaceX could not conduct a successful rocket launch within the first three attempts that he would give up. He later backtracked on that vow after the third launch attempt failed.

"That was particularly tough because we were low on money and the economy wasn't doing so well," Musk recounted Thursday.

The fourth launch of the smaller Falcon 1 rocket, in 2008, was a success and led to later accomplishments as well as much-needed contracts from NASA and various companies.

"It's not certain that SpaceX would be here today if flight 4 had not succeeded," Musk said, adding, "It's certainly been a very difficult and arduous emotional journey."